Hacker News Reader

Comment by socalgal2 | Hacker News Reader

I kinda wish there was more of this type of thing. I'm all for making new foods but call them something else please.

As a Hawaiian I find it culturally disrespectful what passes for poke in most areas outside the Hawaiian Islands, so I kind of wish they were required to use a different name so that they could hopefully learn what they're making is not poke, at least not traditional poke.

Here's is Google's first picture of poke

https://pasteboard.co/seVXA4y4e3Qb.webp

Maybe now-a-days that's common in Hawaii, probably to cater to tourists, but, at least all the places I go and the stuff I grew up with looks nothing like that.

It would look more like this. No rice, very few veggies.

https://pasteboard.co/RdAwZEuQQENd.jpg

There are various varieties (salt, shoyu, octopus, etc...) but they all have one thing in common. They are not served with veggies and rice.

View on HN

So, nix the Thai curries and Japanese curries because they are different from their Indian counterpart?

If a particular country itself wants to police what something means, I guess... and that means we could ossify what poke means in the us but poke exists in other countries as well (like the philippine islands and japan.) and they are different.

But I disagree... we can have Texas BBQ and Carolinas BBQ and St Louis BBQ... or CT lobster rolls and maine Lobster rolls...

We might as well rail against calling non mincemeat hamburgers 'burgers because they are not genuine burgers...

I didn't suggest getting rid of anything. I suggested changing the name.

If you make brownies without chocolate you don't call them brownies. Maybe you call the blondies. Or if they're made with a unique incredient then you called them whatever. "vegan brownies", "no-bake brownies", etc. but not just "brownies" as that has a meaning.

If you make hummus from beets you call it "beet hummus". If you make it from avocados you call it "avocado hummus". Because calling it just "hummus" implies you made it from chickpeans, seseme, etc...

Same here. If you add lettuce, avocado, rice, etc to poke then call it "salad poke" or "poke salad" but don't just call it "poke" because with those things added it's not poke.

Your images didn't load for me, sadly. Might be some corporate filtering.

Anyway, I googled up this [1] article about supposedly original poke, and it also mentions rice and shows images of bowls with rice. Interesting!

PS. As a Swedish person, the "cinnamon rolls" with frosting that are typical in the US are somewhat triggering to me (because [2]). Sorry about the poke!

Edit: switched the cinnamon roll link to the actual Swedish-style image, for clarity.

[1]: https://guide.michelin.com/hk/en/article/features/6-things-t...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_roll#/media/File:Cinn...

In other parts of the world where we can’t just pull big tasty fish out of the water, we have to make do with other ingredients, sorry.

That's not really the point. The point is representing something as something it's not. poke is a representation of my culture. The things others are calling poke is not. It's a misreprestation. It tastes different. It taste worse IMO. A better name could be as simple as "poke salad", "poke with rice and lettuce". But not just "poke"

I don't see that as controversial. If you made a margarita with whisky you wouldn't put it on the menu as "margarita". You'd put it on the menu as "whisky margarita" to make it clear it's NOT a margarita.

Same with a mojito. If you change the liquor from rum or use a fruit other than lime then you change the name. "mango mojito" etc...

The same with poke. If you're going to add avocado, lettuce, edamame, rice, then don't just call it "poke". That's misprepresation of what you're serving.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com